Why does everything you say sound hollow?

After bassist Luke Henery invited me to take part in Violent Soho’s clip “Neighbour Neighbour” in November 2012 where I did a striptease in the pool to a standing ovation, the director decided against having the scene included in the final product. I still loved the clip and the song all the same.

A few months passed, then Henery hit me up again saying something like “The band are aware of the fact that you have been organising an annual nude bike ride around Brisbane for some years. Would you like to recreate it for our next single ‘In The Aisle’?”

I said ‘yes’ like a shot, so he picked me up from my joint at about 5:30am and he drove me to the starting point in Redcliffe where we filmed the first scene. We went to the main esplanade where the cops told us to move on after a few takes, because they got some phone calls from residents that they had seen a nude man on a bike around their neighborhood. When the band told them it was for a videoclip, they said “Oh well, that’s okay then, otherwise we were going to take him to the Caboolture mental health hospital!”

We then went to Southside Tea Rooms (RIP), and then to Paddington where it took about 12 takes for me to ride down a hilly road with the city in the background.

After that, we did some filming in King George Square where I put some dummy WNBR posters up on the monumental lions, and then out on James Street where a few pretentious yuppie businessmen wankers stormed out of a cafe when I tried to hand them a poster.

We did the last scene at the Kangaroo Point cliffs where some families were skateboarding and having a bbq. The father of one of them who was probably drunk or stoned was slurring “What are you punks doing here? It ain’t right for a grown man going naked where kids are!” I tried not to laugh.

Finally, I got takenback home to Bethania at about 5:30pm and crashed into bed and didn’t get up until about 10:00am the next day.

The song was released as a single on July 8th, and the video the following week. It quickly went to No.1 on the 4ZZZ FM charts, then The Morning Show picked up on the video, and Lindsay McDowens interviewed me about it on Triple J when I posted about the clip on their forum.

From there, Violent Soho went from being a cult underground band to becoming a household name. RAGE and Triple J played (and still do) the absolute bejesus out of the clip and song, and I got a number of their fans wanting pics and autographs of me at subsequent gigs I went to – all of which I was happy to do.

Their following single “Covered In Chrome” ended up becoming their signature tune where they did a clip setting fire to a load of clothes on a rotating washing line, as well as the hook point chorus “Hell fuck yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!!” It went gold and got millions of views without ever entering the top 40 singles chart.

The album that the songs were taken from “Hungry Ghost” peaked at No.6 in the ARIA albums chart and No.2 in the Australian albums chart, and it also got them record deals in the US and Canada with Side One Dummy and Dine Alone Records.

I’m glad to have had Violent Soho as a part of my life’s highs, and they’ve always been lovely guys to have a beer and chat with at gigs and wherever else I’ve seen them.

Thanks guys, and happy 10th anniversary to “In The Aisle” (and btw the clip *IS* safe for work!).